When is a graph "down" ?

by Mikel Lindsaar

Having different colours for up and down statistics is common, and nothing new.

It makes it simple to see if a chart is "going in the right direction" and is why all Envisage graphs are two toned. Black if the statistic is heading "up" in a better direction, and red if the statistic is heading "down". We chose black and red for many reasons, one of which is that red/green colour blind people can see the difference between black and red.

But this poses a problem. What do you do with a statistic that is exactly the same as the previous period? Should it be black, or should it be red?

We believe it should be red. And here is why.

When a statistic is exactly the same as last week, this is not a good thing. Imagine if your income was the same every month for the rest of your life. In a decade or so, you would be very poor! The fact is that society is always expanding, and so, for you just to stay alive, you need to keep expanding.

This is why in Envisage, a statistic that was the same as it was the period before, will show up as "red" indicating it was "down" compared to the previous week.

Stop wasting time and money fixing the wrong thing in your company. You could have your key statistics
entered in the next 15 minutes to have a clear picture of where you are going and what needs the most
attention.